Professor Kolapo Olusola who stated this in Ado-Ekiti said “Since my adoption is still subject to the conduct of primary election in accordance with the constitution of the PDP, there should be no cause for alarm.”

• Concerned PDP members reject adoption

Ekiti State Deputy Governor, Professor Kolapo Olusola has urged aggrieved governorship aspirants in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to focus their minds on how to ensure victory for the party in the 2018 governorship election rather than being bothered by his adoption as the governor’s preferred candidate.

Olusola who stated this in Ado-Ekiti said “Since my adoption is still subject to the conduct of primary election in accordance with the constitution of the PDP, there should be no cause for alarm.”

The deputy governor declared that all members of the PDP in the state have rights to aspire to be the party’s flag-bearer, adding that his adoption has not excluded anyone.

He called on members of the party, especially the aspirants to desist from utterances that could paint the PDP in bad light, saying, “We should not turn quest for the PDP governorship ticket to an avenue for maligning one another because we remain one family.

“We should love one another and there should be no reason to fight ourselves. My adoption notwithstanding, others still have right to aspire and the good thing is that no one has been excluded from participating in the primary.

“Even from the word preferred, it means others are not excluded and imposition does not arise at all.”

Meanwhile, the Concerned Ekiti Peoples Democratic Party (CEPDP) members have disowned group claiming to be elders of the party in the state led by Chief Paul Alabi, giving credence to the adoption of Eleka.

In a statement signed by Gbenga Babawibe and Dr Seun Adebayo on their behalf, the members said that “though Alabi, who signed the statement is one of our leaders in the Ekiti State chapter of the PDP, we say it loudly that he does not have any legal or assumed authority to speak on behalf of the elders of the party.

“Whatever he says verbally, and or in documents signed at any time, are his personal opinion and does not represent the opinion or interest of the larger group of the PDP elders in Ekiti State.

“When elders who have legal status are to be mentioned, we state clearly that as things stand in Ekiti State PDP today, we only have two BoT members in the person of Chief Clement Awoyelu and Senator Biodun Olujimi.

“We also have other respectable elders like Professor Tunde Adeniran, Barrister Afolabi Ojuawo, Prince Gabriel Omodara, Hon. B. J Abegunde, and a host of others who know, and have acknowledged that the so called adoption move, rather than unite the party, will, in view of circumstances in the party, divide us the more.

“Nothing will be achieved, except total erosion and damage to the fragile unity we presently enjoy in the party.

“We want to implore members of the public, especially the PDP members to discountenance the statement as issued, which is targeted at deceiving the people to believe that our revered elders in the party have compromised their God- given position which came to being by virtue of their age and political experience.”